The Computer Internet is Virally Infested!
I picked up multiple viruses last night, seemingly from the IMDB site. IMDB really is the suckiest site for that sort of thing. It's full of fascinating info for actor-spotters like me who like to say 'Oh yes! It's thingy thing from that movie!' or 'Bloody hell Pete Postlethwaite! You only had a few years left to live! You're a great actor, you could have picked a decent film!' However, the site layout of IMDB is trash and it has more viruses than picciesofnakidladies.ru.
Last night there was an incredibly clever and sneaky one that posed as a native Windows virus scanner. It called itself Win 7 Security and refused to die. The Windows virus scanner is a bitch to turn off anyway, so this was surprisingly convincing.
It came with a pop-up that identified 25 key-logger type viruses on my computer. However my other, real virus-scanners did not detect these. So far, I was almost convinced.
It didn't have an obvious process name, so I couldn't kill it with ctrl+alt+delete in Task Manager.
It blocked all internet browsing, except for it's own download site. 'Pay $59.99 for full protection!' the site claimed. And it looked spot-on. I only started to think it was malware when I couldn't turn it off via the Windows Control Panel options.
In the end I had to use my laptop to find a solution. It was then a case of running Windows in Safe Mode and downloading a few extra pieces of Anti-virus software. Irritatingly, one of these was a Spyware/Virus scanner that scanned my computer, but would only remove the viruses if I paid them money. Eventually, between AVG Anti Virus, Avast, Spybot Seach and Destroy and Anti-Malware I managed to get my computer and the internet working.
One question - why do I only ever get viruses or major computer problems at around 9.30 - 10.00pm? I end up staying all bloody night to fix them!
Still, I seem to have beaten the virus for now. A minor victory in the War Against Cybercriminals. Geroge W Bush would be proud!
Last night there was an incredibly clever and sneaky one that posed as a native Windows virus scanner. It called itself Win 7 Security and refused to die. The Windows virus scanner is a bitch to turn off anyway, so this was surprisingly convincing.
It came with a pop-up that identified 25 key-logger type viruses on my computer. However my other, real virus-scanners did not detect these. So far, I was almost convinced.
It didn't have an obvious process name, so I couldn't kill it with ctrl+alt+delete in Task Manager.
It blocked all internet browsing, except for it's own download site. 'Pay $59.99 for full protection!' the site claimed. And it looked spot-on. I only started to think it was malware when I couldn't turn it off via the Windows Control Panel options.
In the end I had to use my laptop to find a solution. It was then a case of running Windows in Safe Mode and downloading a few extra pieces of Anti-virus software. Irritatingly, one of these was a Spyware/Virus scanner that scanned my computer, but would only remove the viruses if I paid them money. Eventually, between AVG Anti Virus, Avast, Spybot Seach and Destroy and Anti-Malware I managed to get my computer and the internet working.
One question - why do I only ever get viruses or major computer problems at around 9.30 - 10.00pm? I end up staying all bloody night to fix them!
Still, I seem to have beaten the virus for now. A minor victory in the War Against Cybercriminals. Geroge W Bush would be proud!